In spite of the Western World's efforts to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions, the rapid development of what was once called the Third World, particularly overpopulated countries like India, China, and Indonesia; spurred a seemingly unstoppable climb in greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the early 21st Century. Spurred by increases in demand for Cement, Steel, Energy, and the comforts the west had enjoyed for over a century, the developing world drove a steady climb in greenhouse emissions and as such the temperature of the planet. In 2013 the Arctic was Ice Free for the first time in recorded history. In 2025 portions of the Greenland Ice Shelf began to fall more rapidly into the ocean. Combined by the desalination of the waters of the arctic and the loss of the natural mirror that the ice caps acted as for a natural shield against solar radiation, the planet began to heat up exponentially. In 2029 this reached the ultimate tipping point with the release of billions of tonns of Methane from the defrosted Russian gas fields in Siberia. This sent climate change into a virtually irrecoverable overdrive, making human produced greenhouse gasses look utterly insignificant. By the summer of 2031 sea levels had risen by as much as 100 meters, driving billions of coastal city dwellers from their homes and making almost every existing problem of the day exponentially worse by the factor of shrinking territories and massive displaced populations.

In the US, people were convinced things absolutely couldn't get any worse. The US was at the peak of what is often referred to as the Pendulum Era, where control of the government had been habitually switching between parties consistently every four years since 2012. This had created an environment where the Government was completely deadlocked and incapable of managing the economy which while officially recovered since 2013, had seen unemployment continuously go up since the end of the Great Recession due to the greater dependency on computers and automation for jobs that were largely conducted by manual labor. As a result government revenue has dropped while spending has consistently gone up via new wars, failure to realistically reform entitlements with the surge of retirees, etc. This has ultimately led to the United States being under massive debt, and has been forced to dedicate half of all tax revenue to paying off foreign debts, something that was only able to be accomplished after the majority of Baby Boomer seniors had died off.

With the onset of the Great Deluge the US economy entered into the greatest depression in its history due to the displacement of the majority of its workforce from the regions where the majority of business was conducted. Poverty exploded across the country, and while the US Capitol and few other cities were safe from the floods via sea walls constructed over the last two decades, the cost of living in these areas made it impossible for all but the richest citizens to live there. Things were made worse as the Water Crisis, which had officially been going on since the 2010s, became unmanageable with the majority of desalination plants on the coasts being destroyed, and the reservoirs in the heartland being overused by the hoards of refugees. This ultimately led to the Great Famine of 2035, where lack of fresh water for irrigation, bolstered by an inactive economy resulted in a worldwide food shortage.

In one year food prices rose 90% across the board, and bottled water went up 200%, while wages had either stagnated or gone down. Meanwhile the US Government is dithering about making meaningful financial reform, the rich are the only ones who can afford to live comfortably in the few remaining coastal cities with access to vat-grown foods and vertical farms, and the major religious leaders are claiming the end times.

In attempt to resolve the crisis President Brian Drager calls for what would come to be known as the Conference of Interests; which consisted of delegates from major religious groups, political action committees, and business leaders. The PACs send half of the representatives while business and religious leaders consist of the second half of the Confrerence's delegates. The PACs argue for outlining a specific set of legislative reforms to be made to the US economy, however business and religious leaders refuse agree to the reforms, resulting in the PACs sponsoring their own Coalition Party that would take control of Congress in the midterm elections of 2034. President Drager, fearing more instability by Populist coalitions, sides with buisness and religious leaders favoring their own proposed reforms. In 2035 the Coalition led 124th Congress issued the Rotundra Contract, where they promise to not stop until they have reformed the US Government via a new series of Amendments.

In October of 2035 a rumor started that the US Chamber of Commerce was secretly hoarding non-perishable food stuffs somewhere in the abandoned subway networks of Manhattan. This resulted in the Wader's March, named for the few protestors who famously walked to Wall Street and wore fishing Waders to keep dry over the few areas where the levies had spilled over. The Waders stormed the financial district and demanded that the Stock Market be moved inland to one of the few cities in the country that had been relatively unaffected by the Flood and remained in the hands of the middle class.

In this time the number of independent on non-state sponsored militia groups had skyrocked, starvation and crime were rampant in certain areas of the country, and the US Government was utterly incapable of doing anything to stop it.

little tip only the sides of long should be under water my home is about 160feet above see level my father always told me when I was younger that you can make an city only using 1x1x1 mile or so cube that could hold most of new york people/jobs and what not who needs an wall when you got an cube and because its an cube its more balance and can hold up to the wight of the cube

ps there been more greenhouse gases in the past its fine or better yet earth going in to its girl period lol no joke 10,000 years of peace normal weather no earthquake is over and the new 10,000 years going to be hell you could say by left side of usa by china Brazil cube japan mostly 10k peace and then 10k of earthquakes found out when people look at the layer of rocks that shows an peried of lots of EQ and one with few that date 10k years each

other ps Manhattan would be hit hard by storms rich people would most likely move upstate NY nice cheap land